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Trip Down Memory Lane in Southern California

Kay Hunt

Southern California held lots of opportunity to visit with relatives and take a nice trip down memory lane for me.  I was born in Southern CA and still have lots of relatives living in the area.  Growing up, my family would spend a couple weeks in the LA and Newport Beach area every summer visiting grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.  In fact, my earliest sailing experiences were on the bay in Newport Beach—playing around with Grandpa Jack in his small daysailer and as preteens, taking sabot sailing lessons with my sister, Nan, arranged by Grandma Lois.


A young Kay sailing with Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jack

Dolphins! An acrobatic pod escorted us down Santa Barbara Channel, swimming right along the bow of the boat, matching our speed for several minutes. What a thrill! We scored a nice slip in the municipal marina in Santa Barbara where we spent a few days exploring that beautiful city.  We especially enjoyed bicycling along the palm tree lined beach path and exploring the vibrant downtown where we ran into a clan of musical pirates! We were excited to host my cousin Timbo, his wife Maggie and their 2 toddlers on our boat for a few hours.  The boat was a jungle gym for the active kids, donned in their life vests, exploring all the nooks and crannies.  


We then headed out to the Channel Islands, stopping in 2 anchorages at Santa Cruz Island. The views were stunning on 2 different hikes that took us up high on the cliff ledges—viewing down at the impressive kelp beds, turquoise water crashing against the rocky shoreline, and the myriad of sea caves along the coast.  Lobster season was opening that weekend, necessitating careful navigation around hundreds of lobster pots that the commercial fishermen had set ready to harvest the following opening day.

On our way to LA, we had a quick stopover at Paradise Point at the base of the Malibu cliffs. We enjoyed one of Brett’s cocktail creations dubbed the “Malibu Riviera,” concocted out of whatever we happened to have on hand while enjoying the incredible scene of the sunset lighting up the cliffs and incredible homes along the ridge. The next day we found a convenient and affordable slip at the public Chase Burton Park in Marina Del Rey. Here we met up with Aunt Christine, Uncle Don, and my cousin Nick. They were amazing hosts of their city—we enjoyed great sushi, live jazz, a curated tour of the impressive Getty Museum provided by Christine, fishing tips from Nick who is an accomplished fisherman, a scenic bike ride along Venice and Santa Monica beaches, and even a relaxing soak in their backyard jacuzzi.




Newport Beach was our next stop.  It was unusually foggy for October, which is typically sunny and dry. We moored on a mooring ball and at the free anchorage, both of which were very pleasant and convenient to the many public dinghy docks. I really enjoyed reminiscing on those childhood summer vacations and good family times we had here especially with my four grandparents who have now all passed away. We enjoyed many of the activities as we had years ago--beach bike rides, bodysurfing, frozen bananas on Balboa Island, watching the boats come and go in the harbor.  We were excited to have Ellie and her friend, Patrick join us for a few days here, have my Aunt Leslie and Uncle Bruce on the boat for a nice afternoon together, and meet up with some of Brett’s college buddies.



Wind was hard to come by in Southern California, perhaps related to the persistent fog, but we did enjoy a nice sail into Avalon Harbor on Catalina Island.  We spent a week here with a light shoulder season crowd in this highly picturesque town. Boats heading to San Diego for the Baja Ha-Ha rally were starting to coalesce, and we were happy to make some new acquaintances at our three Catalina Island stops.  We were lucky to meet Charlie, the Catalina chimes caretaker, and got a personal tour of the 100-year-old organ pipe chimes mechanism. Brett took him up on his invitation to join in on the local’s 7:30am daily swim at Surfer’s Beach for some chilly exercise. We also enjoyed a jazz concert on Descanso Beach, a hot, dry Hermit Gulch hike, and some good snorkeling.  



We escaped the rather rolly Catalina anchorages and headed to Dana Point’s calm anchoring area. We needed a calm spot for Brett to go up the mast to install our new horn. The list of chores we needed to complete before heading into Mexico was long, so we spent our days getting a good start on them here, rewarding ourselves with bike rides to the top of the scenic seaside cliffs and Dana Point’s charming downtown eateries in the evenings.







Our final SO CAL stop was San Diego where we spent 2 weeks prepping for our departure on the Baja HaHa. We were excited to visit with my Uncle Dave and Aunt Denise who generously made several trips out to our boat with packages they had received for us. We did work on the teak decks, the washing machine, the dinghy, and started sewing cockpit cushions with our new Sailrite sewing machine. We installed a new outhaul line and our failed autopilot was rebuilt by a mechanic here.  My Uncle Dave was immensely helpful in getting our wind generator fixed using his tools, workshop, and skills. Most of the time we anchored in Glorietta Bay which was peaceful and where we were able to watch the Navy Seals’ impressive swim training. It was interesting to observe all the military activity in the area and feel the patriotism brought by Reveille and Retreat echoing across the water each day.  We carved out a little time to explore the beaches, bike paths, and town on Coronado Island, one of our favorite places. We were also grateful to spend an evening with Dave and Denise’s neighbors, also cruisers who have sailed down the coast to Panama.  It is so valuable to be able to learn from other cruisers who have travelled this path before us!







Next up—the Baja HaHa! The blog is getting caught up and we are excited to share!

 

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